How The Mighty Have Fallen
by Demon's Path
Summary: "What do you mean 'shopping for your mother?". A somewhat sequel for 'The De Vills'.
1. Prolouge

**English is my second language so please don't be so hard on me!**

 **Watch out for grammar mistakes and enjoy reading!**

 **Toodles!**

* * *

"You want us to what!?"

Ben looked at his friends tiredly. That was exactly his reaction when his parents told him that the four isle kids are going back to their childhood home this upcoming winter break. Apparently, the council still doesn't trust the four entirely to not trash the school when there are no responsible adults to supervise them. Ben thinks it rubbish, of course, but then again it's him against the whole council so his hands are tied (he may be the king, but they still have the final word). He looked apologetically at his friends, feeling incredibly guilty.

"I am _so_ sorry guys. I tried to talk to them but they just wouldn't _listen_!"

Mal sighed. She had been there with him when his parents told him about the council's decision. She had seen him tried to talk sense to his parents, had seen him so worked out this week. She's not angry, frustrated maybe, but not angry. She understood, she really do. She wouldn't trust her either if she was in the council place. Just because you announce to the world you choose to be good, didn't mean they would trust you immediately. Honestly, after the shock of being told, she mostly just resigned herself and getting ready to survive the upcoming weeks. She knows the other three would be the same.

"It's okay Ben. It's not the end of the world." She told him with the gentlest voice she could mutter. The poor guy, feeling guilty the whole week.

"But it's _not_ okay Mal! I mean, it's because of me you are in this mess! What if they beat you guys up for being good? Or _worse_ , what if they _kill_ you!?"

Ugh, why does her boyfriend have to be so melodramatic?

"Ben, stop being so melodramatic." And it appears that Eve agreed with her. Her eyes found Eve's, both rolled their eyes together, _boys_.

"Yeah, it's not the end of the world, we'll live." Jay said.

Oh yeah, Jafar is not the physical abusive type. As long as Jay gives him valuable stuffs, he'll live alright.

"Talk about yourself, dude." Came a sarcastic reply.

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Carlos De Vil was not a happy camper. What did Ben think when he choose, like, a week before the winter break to told them? A week is not enough time for him to go shopping for him and his mother if they were to return to the isle! Although, he was doing a small dance in his head. He gets to see his mother soon!

Busying with his thought, he didn't catch his friends' worried looks. They had totally forgot about Cruella! All of them had heard rumors how bad she could be when she was mad, which is mostly all the time. Carlos was basically her slave back at the isle. After the stunt they had pulled at Ben's coronation, they afraid that she would kill him for trying to betray her. They all shared looks. In the end, it was Evie who was chose to talk to him (Jay is out of the question; Ben is too stressed to be useful; Mal doesn't know tact.)

"Carlos, if you don't feel safe, you can go and live with one of us." She said, smiling at him "we won't mind. Or, you can live at Maleficent's castle! You don't have to come back to Cruella at all!"

Hearing Evie's voice, Carlos snapped out of his thoughts. He gave his friends a small smile. Looked like they misunderstood him. He's not worried about his mother, he's worried _for_ her. Maybe he should shop for her first, he's worried that she won't be warmed enough this winter. Back at the Isle, he used to savage anything burnable for them to keep the fire up. Now that he was in Auradon, he won't have time to do that, and buying woods is out of the question.

"I'll be okay, guys. Promise. But I have some important stuffs to do, so I gotta go. See you at dinner!" after saying that, Carlos fled out of the room Ben had gathered them in, mind twirling.

* * *

"What do you mean 'shopping for your mother'!?"

Carlos rolled his eyes but didn't look away from his laptop, exasperated at Jay's disbelief in him buying something nice for Cruella De Vil. She's his mother, he's her son, what's wrong with that?

…

Okay, maybe because his friends still thought Cruella hated him, and _maybe_ because he has never explain their mother-son dynamic to them before, but _come on!_ They are family (as far as the word go when you lived on the Isle of the Lost). Even if not, he still felt guilty living in comfort in Auradon, while his mother suffered on the island. He's her son, it's something nice to do to.

Carlos sighed, tone somewhat suffering, answered.

"It means that I am shopping for my _mother,_ something warm to wear this winter, maybe some make-ups, too."

"Er…with what?" – Jay asked numbly, still shocked at Carlos's words.

"Money, of course"

"You have _money_ to buy clothes for Cruella!? Did you steal from someone?" came the shocked replied. Carlos wanted to roll his eyes _so bad_.

"Yes, I have money. No, I didn't steal. I'm not you Jay."

"B…but…then, where would you get the money to _**shop**_ for _**Cruella De Vill**_!?" Pause "and _hey_!"

Ugh. Carlos rolled his eyes, giving in to the temptation.

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When Jay walked into his and Carlos's room that night, the last thing he expected to see was Carlos online shopping for Cruella. At first, he's thought that it was for Carlos's girlfriend or something. So when he opened his mouthed to ask, planning to tease Carlos a bit, about if he's shopping for some dresses to wear, what he got was a deadpanned look and an answer that make him want to check his hearing, fearing he's been… _hearing_ things.

I mean, 'shopping for **my mother** ' means shopping for Carlos's mom, meaning shopping for _**Cruella De Vil**_. The **Cruella** - _I-am-a-crazy-hag-_ **De** - **Vil**!

Excuse him for being shocked! It's not everyday one saw someone shopping online for or spend tons of money on Cruella De Vil, her son (former slave) nonetheless! Maybe he should take Carlos to see a doctor, maybe he had hit his head _hard_ somewhere (at this point Jay wasn't sure whose had been hit though). Then he suddenly remembered his father's rant about being not able to understand that bitch, Cruella, at all. _Well, who does!?_ Jay felt a sudden sympathy toward his old man now, this conversation with Carlos is giving him a headache. Maybe he was dreaming? Maybe he's imagining things? Maybe if he wake up the next morning, this would be just a weird, _weird_ dream. Yeah, sleeping sounds good right now.

At that, Jay stumbled over to his bed and fainted.

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Carlos looked up from his laptop when he heard a loud _thump_ , saw Jay fainting, rolled his eyes, and get back to work.

 _Boys._


	2. Jasper and Horace

Everyone on the Isle of The Lost knows Cruella De Vill is a crazy mean old hag, and when she usually had one of her episode she like to take it out on people. They always stayed clear out of her way when she walked down the street, and being thankful for not become her punching bag. They pity the poor skinny boy that she calls her son, but better him than them. Every man for themselves and all that.

But ever since those brats left the Isle (the daughters of Maleficent and Evil Queen, the sons of Jafar and Cruella De Vill), they steered clear of Hell Hall. No soul dare to even come near it. They could always heard Cruella's anguish scream, heard her agony, scratchy voice howled into the night (there's a reason why Cruella is one of the scariest villains around even though she has no magic to help her).

So when they saw one of Auradon fancy car coming to the island, they hope to the high above that the brats are back.

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Jasper and Horace Badun are very fond of Carlos De Vill.

When they got ship to live on the Isle of The Lost, they had planned to get away as far as they could from Cruella (she was the reason they had to come here after all). But then they learnt how… _comfortable_ it was to work for her. She gave them a shelter to live in, she gave them something to do with their miserable lives. Sure, she verbally abuse them when they didn't follow her order (same as their old mother, so what else is new), and they would be her nearest target when she was having one of her episode. But then they learnt that when they worked for Cruella, other villains wouldn't touch them, so in a way they could see that she protect them. They learnt that at least with her, they have a place to live in (maybe someday they could call it _home_ ), could have some food and drinks for their stomach. And they learnt to be okay with that.

When little Carlos appeared in their small rotten world, their lives changed. They avoided Cruella as often as possible when she was pregnant with him but then again you could never avoid Cruella forever (the island would be never big enough to hide from her). So they learnt to be patience, sitting there listen to her rant about how miserable she was, how she just wish this freaking _thing_ is out of her body already and if she had to take a piss one more time in this hour she's going to kill someone (they never asked why she just didn't get rid of it, never brave enough to).

It seemed that they learnt a lot when they work for Cruella.

They learnt how to take care of babies. They learnt how hard raising a baby could be, how thankful they should be to their old mother, she had raised them by herself and they just…never thank her _enough_. They learnt that even Cruella De Vill had her own soft side, and that side usually reserved for her baby boy, her son.

They never told anyone about it of course. One part of it because this is their _very-_ dysfunctional-somewhat-of-a-family now, one part because they didn't want to die, one part because, well, who would believe them? They learnt that motherhood is a wonderful and a magical thing to experience, and they were so, _so_ thankful for Carlos. His laughter could almost always brighten their day. That was when they learnt how to love someone enough to risk their lives for. They learnt to be protective of the boy, but then Cruella would hit them on the head. Because, she said, if they were always protect him, how could he learn to protect himself when they're not there? She won't have her baby boy defenseless, she said, do something about it, she ordered.

So they taught Carlos how to run away from danger, how to hit someone where it hurt the most. They told him to use his size as his advantage. People would look down on him because he's smaller than them, but then again bigger wouldn't mean better (they were fool by those dalmatians after all, and they were all just pups with the size of their hands). Be sneaky, they said, make sure they underestimate you, it would give you a big advantage.

When Carlos departed to Auradon, they missed it because they were on an errand for Cruella. Although they wished they could also missed the time Cruella was away from her son, too. Her screams are agony to hear. No soul dared to come near to Hell Hall these days, and the poor souls who to took all Cruella's anger on was them (oh how they wish some idiot would just be passing by so they could grap him and make him one of Cruella's punching bag). They had learnt to live with it, didn't mean they have to like it.

Jasper nearly dance with joy when he saw one of those Auradon fancy car drive toward the island. There's only one reason it would drive towards here, the brats are back (he can finally get some rest and Cruella can stop being more of a bitch than usual). He told his idiot of a brother to go and tell Cruella (better Horace than him, he internally smirk). With all the 'choosing good' thing those brats did on national television, even if you gave Jasper diamonds, he wouldn't volunteer to tell her (he's fond of Carlos, he really do, but could the boy and his friends betrayed them somewhere else? Preferably where no cameras involved).


	3. Homecoming

**Maybe a little romance? Get Carlos pair with someone?**

 **I'm rubbish at romance, though...I probably try but I pretty sure I'd fail in writing it. OTL**

* * *

They all think it would be best if they didn't tell their parents about their returning to the island for winter break. Give their parents more time to plan their demise? Yeah, they would like to have a slight advantage, thank you.

When the car they were riding on drove closer and closer to the Isle of The Lost, they could saw of their parents standing in front of the entrance waiting for them (all except Maleficent, of course) and boy did they seemed… _ecstatic_.

Their parents' ideas of fun are his and his friends' nightmares. Really, for more than 10 years Jay had lived with Jafar, never had anything good had happened to him when his father smiled the smile he was smiling now (more like _smirking_ , Jay thought with a grimace). The Evil Queen still as composed and queen-like as ever. The most disturbing one was Cruella De Vill, though. Even from afar, Jay could see everyone was giving her a wide berth, even wider than usual. He saw people exchanged wary glances, walking on eggshell around her and her two minions – Jasper and Horace.

He chance a glance at Carlos, face set with determination. If Cruella planned to hurt his best-friend in any form, he would try his best to protect him, even risk his own safety in return. It's not that Jay think Carlos couldn't protect himself, it's just…there's _something_ about Carlos that bring out the protective side of him. Anyway, at best he could just say Mal, Evie and him were the one who had manipulated Carlos into betraying them (or he could just throw himself bodily at Cruella when she tried to punish Carlos, give him enough time to run and hide).

However, what Jay hadn't expected was Cruella hugged the life out of her son (could someone be hugged to death?). He dared said she look genuinely happy to see her son again and what was that Jay heard? Her _baby boy_? Since when Cruella had a loving pet name for Carlos? When did Cruella De Vill became so... _motherly_? What's happening? Good god, even the Evil Queen and Jafar looked disturbed at Cruella sudden behavior!

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Mal _knows_ stranger things had happened in her life. Although Cruella De Vill hugging the life out of Carlos would definitely be on her top 5. Seeing one of the craziest, evilest, most heartless villain showering her son with hugs and kisses, all the while cooing at him and tell him how _mama had missed her baby boy so so so much_ could probably traumatized anyone (she need to wash her brain soon or else she just _knows_ she would have nightmares about this).

Is this one of Cruella revenge plan to get back to them? By giving them heart-attacks and traumatized them so much that they would have nightmares for years to come? Smoothing Carlos to death with her bosoms and filled his ears with false sweetness? Make him drop his guards enough to stab him in the back? She's not being paranoid, she's _not_.

She's the group leader, it's her job to look out for her friends. They're her family in all but blood and she would be damned not to protect them the best she could.

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 _Aw, how sweet_ – Evie thought with a smile on her face. Somewhere at the corner of her eyes, she saw Jasper and Horace smirked in satisfaction. Ah, Evie mused, Cruella must be unbearable when Carlos was in Auradon then, the poor souls.

Oh, Evie had always known about Cruella's motherly love for Carlos, and how much he love her in return, how he viewed their group of friends as only his second family, and how Jasper and Horace are like his two adopted uncles. She never said this aloud even though she's sure that Carlos knows she knows.

Carlos was her first friend, the first one to understand her, to respect her, to believe in her, to accept who she really is, even before herself. She would always remember fondly little Carlos, so small and skinny, sneakily running all over the island, making plans and laying traps; whose smiles are so bright, soul are too good to be stuck in this miserable place they called home.

People would think Evie would be the one to initiate their friendship but it was actually Carlos. Carlos, who, at the time and still was, so small and scrawny, who was known as the-poor-kid-who-was-Cruella's-son-but-actually-her-slave, whose smiles were so sincere and genuine, so good, so bright, had so bravely offered his hand to her, who was rumored to be a snotty useless little slut, who was raise by the Evil Queen to seduce men, to trick and manipulate for her own gain. When she asked him why he would want to befriend with her, he just shrugged, gave her his crooked smile and said "I like being friends with you".

Carlos was the brother she had never had, her precious family. Even though she treasured Mal and Jay just the same, he would always have a special place in her heart.


End file.
